Online voter registration bills see support from House, Senate committees

Texas could become the seventeenth state to allow online voter registration if two bills advancing out of committees receive final approval.

House Bill 313, which received praise from committee members in a Monday hearing, and Senate Bill 315, which was voted out of committee Thursday, propose allowing voters to register online and have that application automatically authenticated rather than having to wait on local election officials to reenter the data in their systems and confirm it.

Arizona, which was the first state to create a completely online registration system in 2002, now receives more than 70 percent of its applications digitally, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, introduced HB 313 with a higher authentication standard than seen in Arizona and other states.

Users would have to prove their identity by providing the last four digits of their social security number, driver’s license number and driver’s license audit number, which is specific to the physical card and would prevent someone from stealing a license to register online.

“That is such a high threshold of authorization that in Texas law it constitutes notarization,” Strama said.

The Texas Association of Counties reported in the bill’s fiscal note that the proposal would yield considerable savings associated with the expedited process and not having to hire temporary staff to handle an increased influx of paper registrations near deadlines — often increasing the margin of human error.

Election officials there, and from Tarrant County, testified in support of the measure.

A study by the Pew Charitable Trusts noted that in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, that online registrations cost the state three cents to offer and process while paper applications cost 83 cents.

Albert Cheng, manager of voter registration for Harris County tax-assessor collector’s office, initially listed himself on the witness list as opposing the bill, but said he would support the bill if the author would work with him to address some concerns about security and voter identification.

Others testified that they wanted online registrants to have to vote in person the first time to prove they are who they claim to be, but Strama opposed the proposal. He noted the authentication of online applications requires a much higher standard than paper applications which face no similar restrictions on where to vote.

Strama and several defensive committee members argued that concerns about potential voter fraud or difficulties confirming identities when drivers license addresses don’t match county maps are problems endemic to all voter registration forms — paper or electronic — and are not created or expanded by allowing registration to be completed online.

Some argued accuracy would be increased and workload decreased because online registrants couldn’t, for example, submit an incomplete application as often happens on paper.